Not a whole lot of gaming....

Two years ago, when I first began writing Games on the Table, it was a time in my life when I played lots of board games and spent a ton of time researching games and using Board Game Geek. I did those things because it was possible at that time. I had lots of time to think about tabletop gaming, and I had so many thoughts about games that I finally decided to start writing this blog. My life was full of gaming, and this was an outlet.

Back then, I had two children, and now I have three. Back then, I didn't have nearly the amount of music to compose that I do now. Now that I'm composing music for Children of the Gods, I always have work to do in my free time - the same time slot I use for blogging. And I expect that my music workflow will only increase. Back then, my wife and I regularly had time for board gaming. Now, we rarely have a time slot long enough to sit down for a game, except for the occasional weekend slot or the rare week night.

We love board gaming, but lack the time for it. I still play board games once a week with my gaming group at work, and we sit down at the roleplaying table once or twice a week with members of that same group (we're currently playing Questers of the Middle Realms for the first time).

I had a great time making the Brief Overview video series. I appreciate all of the encouraging feedback you all sent via this site or Board Game Geek. I wish I could make more of those vids.

Since my wife and I only have short chunks of free time here and there, and most of our time includes our little halflings, we've found casual computer games to be a nice diversion. I've been keeping a little blog about casual games. If you like, you can follow my casual gaming news and reviews there.

As things are, I am effectively "shutting down" Games on the Table. I'm going to leave the blog here just in case someone remembers something they read at one time and want to access it again. I may even post in the future - who knows? But, those of you faithful followers who access the site frequently, don't expect updates anymore.

You know how it is. You can only handle so much on your plate in life. Once the plate is full, you have to start setting aside the less important portions to make room for the more important bits. At this point, Games on the Table has fallen into the "less important" category.

If, for some reason, you desire to follow the goings of my life and work, you can track me here. You can find my twitter info there. You are also welcome to email me anytime at the email address listed on the right-hand side of this blog. And, of course, I'll be hanging around Board Game Geek (eventually geekdo), so you can message me there too.

I wish I could keep up on all of my hobbies, but I am having to give many of them up as my family grows up. And so, I bid you all farewell from the game table, with a hearty thanks to everyone who followed the blog, subscribed to the blog, and especially those who took time to comment on the blog.

Dominion expansion trial run and Geekdo

Dominion: Intrigue on trial

Last week my gaming group sat down at lunch, eagerly anticipating our first play of Dominion: Intrigue (I had played it only once at home with my wife before then). Everyone quickly got busy reading the text on each card as we laid out the randomly chosen set of 10 kingdom cards. There was brief commentary on artwork, questions about specific card rules, and we dove in.

As would be expected, we started playing with fascination at the new combos and possibilities, reminding ourselves frequently what this or that card allowed us to do.

Before long, though, Swindler was on the loose, and not long after, Saboteur showed up in a couple of people's decks. Expressions became more and more grim as card after card was added to the trash pile. There goes one guy's Harem. Ouch - that guy lost another Gold card. Hey, the Saboteur got another one of my Duchies!

It took about half the game to realize we weren't in familiar territory anymore. Our old comfortable strategies were useless. With the kingdom card set we were using, there was simply no way to afford a Province (although one lucky chump managed to buy a single province). I saw this trend and started focusing on Silver - low cost and valuable.

Gripes were only half-jokingly tossed about as people questioned the fun of the new set, leaving me wondering, "Will anyone ever want to play this again?"

Though decks were small and the trash pile large, I enjoyed it personally. I like having to readjust my strategy to each new combination of kingdom cards. I just hope I can convince the rest of the crew that this is a feature of the game, not a flaw. My silver plan almost worked (I ended up with only 2 kingdom cards in my deck), but the guy who got a Province beat me by one point....

Geekdo

With much gladness, I have been participating in the beta test of the new RPG Geek, which will actually just be a part of the new comprehensive Geek site known as Geekdo - The Way of the Geek. BGG and RPGG will be combined into this one site. So far, it's a bit complicated, but it seems to be working well. RPGs are definitely trickier to catalog, and I've been frustrated at the limitations placed on non-admin users when adding various RPG-related data to the database.

I know that once everyone sees the new system they'll be calling out, "Okay, now what about Video Game Geek? Book geek?! Movie geek?!" It's staggering how much work the admins must have put into just getting the RPG element scripted. Yow.

RPG fans, look forward to Geekdo.

New blog

You'll notice that I've removed all of the casual game posts I had made. I realized that there were just too many. That's what I was playing, so that's what I was posting about, but I realized it was starting to go against the theme of this very blog.

So, to keep things organized properly, I've created a new blog.

If you are interested in casual computer games, head over to my new blog: A Game For Everyone.

You can read about good deals there, as well as reviews and news.

In other news, my game order has shipped from Boards and Bits, so expect to hear about the Dominion expansion soon!

Portobello Market - now available!

A few days ago, Portobello Market , a board game designed by Thomas Odenhoven, was finally made available for purchase at online U.S. game stores.

This game was released in February of 2007, published by Schmidt Spiele for the European crowd. The game caught the eye of Playroom Entertainment who published it state-side this summer. I have been watching and researching this game for a few months, wondering how good it was and if it was worth buying. Thoughthammer was showing “Pre-Order - August” for a long time. August came and went, and then it finally arrived in early September. By the time I saw this, the game was sold out. So in pre-order phase, it must have been fairly popular.

What piqued my interest?

This game has art by Michael Menzel. He's probably my favorite game artist - every game he paints for ends up looking great. For an example, look at pictures of the game board for Pillars of the Earth. I love realism in art, and Menzel uses it well. He also has a wonderful sense of lighting and shadows. To look at his art for various games, check out his website.

So, in the case of Portobello Market, the art was admittedly the main draw for me. It just looked fun to play. In addition, there are colorful wooden bits, which are also quite attractive to me, even down to the pattern in which they're placed on the board.



Next, I read some reviews and comments from early owners of the game, which were generally positive. One reviewer called Portobello Market “a gem of a game,” which caught my attention.

And so, I decided to keep my eye on the game, watching for new reviews and comments once the English version was released. That's where I am now. But...

What diminished my interest?

Whenever I'm considering a new game buy, I consult my wife. After all, if she doesn't like the game, who will I ever play with? Sure, I play with the guys at work, but my wife is my primary gaming partner. So, I typically try to get her to show interest before a buy. She researches the game on BGG, reading reviews, and looking at personal comments and pictures.

After looking at Portobello Market, her interest was low. She read that the game was similar to Ticket to Ride and Masons - two games we already own. Other people say that the game is nothing like Ticket to Ride, so that just creates confusion. At the end of the day, my wife just didn't see anything that stood out to her. The game looked boring.

As I continued reading through comments, I was turned off by phrases like “abstract” and “brain-burner” and “no luck”. I tend to avoid brain-burning games because they require more energy and competition than I like investing. If I'm going to play an abstract game, I like it to be light, with somewhat easy decisions (like Through the Desert or Hey! That's My Fish!). The game looked like it had a fun theme, but it started to sound as if it's not necessarily important to the game. I am trying to buy mostly games with clever or seamless theme integration because those seem to be the games we play most, and the type other people request.

So, I'm not going to buy the game for now. But I'll keep looking for reviews and hoping for a chance to try the game someday. It still looks attractive, and I wouldn't pass up a chance to get down all close to the board and admire the detail in Menzel's artwork.